Bill Moyers Journal: CIGNA Chief Admits: Michael Moore's SICKO "Hit The Nail On The Head"

It's a blockbuster admission that we already knew: The health care insurance industry was petrified that Americans would see Michael Moore's Sicko and realize that government-run health care was something that would be good for citizens and lead to better health outcomes.

CIGNA Public Relations Chief turned whistleblower Wendell Potter said the words to Bill Moyers that no insurance company wanted said out loud in this country:

BILL MOYERS: You were also involved in the campaign by the industry to discredit Michael Moore and his film "Sicko" in 2007. In that film Moore went to several countries around the world, and reported that their health care system was better than our health care system, in particular, Canada and England. [..]

So what did you think when you saw that film?

WENDELL POTTER: I thought that he hit the nail on the head with his movie. But the industry, from the moment that the industry learned that Michael Moore was taking on the health care industry, it was really concerned.

BILL MOYERS: What were they afraid of?

WENDELL POTTER: They were afraid that people would believe Michael Moore.

Of course, we knew this. We've been screaming it for years. Still, it's difficult to pierce through that Beltway bubble to those politicos that are still hemming and hawing as the insurance industry insiders fill their campaign coffers.

More from Moyers:

BILL MOYERS JOURNAL has covered the public option that appears to be on the table and the idea of a single-payer plan which is not. Find out more about those plans and all the iterations under consideration below.

>>Compare the current plans. The Public Option The public option, according to Robert Reich, is a government-run non-profit insurance pool, that, by virtue of its size and bargaining power, could control costs and offer people who are either uncovered by, or unhappy with, private insurers an affordable alternative path to health care. Medicare is an example of a public option, notes Reich, with one important caveat — the Medicare drug benefit bill passed during the Bush administration expressly forbids Medicare from using its size to negotiate for lower costs which would be an important strategy for keeping prices down.

Whence Single-Payer? Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Sidney Wolfe told Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL that President Obama isn't considering a popular plan — single-payer. In a recent town-hall meeting in New Mexico, President Obama said switching to single-payer would be too disruptive.

The term "single-payer" generally means a system in which rather than having private, for-profit insurance companies, the government runs one large non-profit insurance organization. That organization pays all the doctor, drug and hospital bills — it is the "single-payer" of all medical bills. In most single-payer plans, every American would be enrolled and would pay into the fund through taxes.

Advocates argue that a single-payer system would pay for itself, saving huge amounts of money in administrative costs. The U.S. currently pays a higher percentage of health dollars for administration than any other nation.

The U.S. also ranks highest in total cost of care, but according to a recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, ranks last among industrialized countries "in preventing deaths through use of timely and effective medical care." In a recent FRONTLINE report comparing the health care systems of five other capitalist democracies, "Sick Around the World," WASHINGTON POST reporter T.R. Reid notes that, "The World Health Organization says the U.S. health care system rates 37th in the world in terms of quality and fairness. All the other rich countries do better than we do, and yet they spend a heck of a lot less."

Source: Crooks and Liars

Watch the video of the Moyers show: Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients

Nurses Back 'SiCKO

Action Alert-Get SICKO Active June 29 in Your Hometown

Crossposted from DrSteveB at Daily Kos

We are working with Michael Moore and an unprecedented national coalition of activists, nurses, doctor, patients and health care activist groups to ensure SiCKO has a long-term impact on our nation’s healthcare system and politics.

It’s an incredible opportunity for patient advocates and it’s only missing one element: you.

What are you doing the evening of Friday June 29th?

We are working on events with Michael Moore throughout the U.S., and are launching a national campaign to promote single payer as the "cure" for our "Sicko" health system. We need you to join us in taking advantage of this tremendous opportunity.

Please sign up to help today and we'll send you more frequent updates as the campaign unfolds. Go here to sign up:

• National Nurses Organizing Committee Sicko Premier Sign-Up

&/or

• Physicians for National National Health Program Campaign Sign-Up

Remember:

• You don't have to be a nurse or physician to participate!
• No date that Friday? Maybe you'll meet a rich nurse or a cute doctor :)
• Let' prove we are not just sit on our butts keyboarding-only phony activists!
• Let's go do something in the real world!

Michael Moore's SiCKO Movie Premiers Nationwide June 29, 2007, and that evening is our first big national action, we aim to have a registered nurse, doctor, patient, or other patient advocate (one way or the other that means YOU!) at every SiCKO opening night around the country.

We will be there to greet the audience, hand out flyers as they leave, perhaps testify to the tragedies witnessed on the front lines of America’s healthcare meltdown. Most of all, they’ll be there to convince the moviegoers that we can make change happen starting now.

This is a historic opportunity to turn movie audiences into patient advocates and healthcare reformers—but we need your help! We urge activist movie-goers to attend the screenings and distribute information about how we can solve the healthcare crisis by supporting guaranteed healthcare on the single-payer model. Sign-up with here, and we’ll send you specifics along with a PDF flyer to hand out soon. Purchase your movie tickets, print and distribute our PDF flyers (when available), and bring friends! Thank you.

This call for 3,000 SiCKO activists for June 29th is the first activity in a national campaign that includes screenings, premiers, marches, protests, legislative briefings, and press conferences around the country. The fun kicks off in California June 12, when Moore will give a special legislative briefing to the California Senate before being escorted by 1,000 registered nurses to an exclusive screening of SiCKO for healthcare providers and activists.

Wear something red, scrubs if you have them, and as the event draws near, we'll send you links to download "red scrub" buttons, fans, and handouts. Once the movie schedule is announced, we’ll send you everything you need. All you have to do is round up a couple buddies and, when possible, buy your tickets online.

Here’s the plan:

Friday night, June 29th, we aim to have a registered nurse, doctor, patient, or other patient advocate at every SiCKO opening night around the country. They’ll be there to greet the audience, hand out flyers as they leave, perhaps testify to the tragedies witnessed on the front lines of America’s healthcare meltdown. Most of all, they’ll be there to convince the moviegoers that we can make change happen starting now. Please go here to sign up.

Why SiCKO? Because it puts on the big screen what nurses see every day: a healthcare industry that has abandoned its caring mission in favor of the pursuit of profit at any cost. For the first time, patients and caregivers have a voice, and we need to use it to demand an end to these abusive healthcare corporations. SiCKO changes everything.

And that’s why we have a chance to change healthcare politics in this nation. The insurance industry and drug companies are already worried. All we need now is for you to help us make SiCKO’s opening night a truly transformative event. There has never been a national moment like these simultaneous 3,000 screenings. This is our chance to change the world. Let's take it.

Again, please go here to sign up:

• National Nurses Organizing Committee Sicko Premier Sign-Up

&/or

• Physicians for National National Health Program Campaign Sign-Up

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In his brilliant new documentary Sicko, Michael Moore gets it completely right. The problem is not enough insurance or even making insurance "affordable." It’s the insurance industry itself. Until we can pry our health out of the cold, cruel hands of the insurers, the system will never fundamentally change, and millions of Americans will continue to be abandoned and mistreated. Moore explains with heart wrenching profiles of people with insurance who are nonetheless denied the care they need. None of those individuals need more insurance, they need more care. He then deconstructs the insurance based system to show us how it works, and how the industry maintains its power through the buying and selling of Congress. And, Moore contrasts our healthcare debacle with other industrialized countries where enriching the private insurance industry is not the first focus of healthcare policy.

For more information on this action, see why "We Don't Need Insurance, We Need Guaranteed Health Care"

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Alphabetic List of State Organizations Promoting Real Universal Health Care - Find Friends Near You:

CA Nurses Association: http://www.calnurses.org/

CA Physicians’ Alliance: http://capa.pnhp.org/

CA Health Care for All: http://www.healthcareforall.org/

CA One-Care-Now: http://www.onecarenow.org/index.html

CO Health Care for All: http://www.healthcareforallcolorado.org/

CT Coalition for Universal Health Care: http://cthealth.server101.com/

DE Informed Civic/Political Coalition: http://deinformedvoters.org/

FL PNHP: http://www.tbpnhp.org/

FL for Health Security: http://www.ffhs.org/

GA for a Common Sense Health Plan: http://www.commonsensehealthplan.org/

IL Health Care for All: http://www.healthcareforallillinois.org/

IL Campaign for Better Health Care: http://www.cbhconline.org/

IN Hoosiers for Commonsense Health Plan: http://www.hchp.info/

IO Students for National Health Plan: http://snhp1.tripod.com/uiowa

KY PNHP: http://www.kyhealthcare.org/

ME People's Alliance: http://www.mainepeoplesalliance.org/

MD Health Care for All Coaltion: http://www.healthcareforall.com/HTML1.phtml

MA Campaign for Single Payer: http://www.masscare.org/

MA Affordable Health Insurance for Everyone: http://healthcareformass.org/

MA Alliance to Defend Health Care: http://www.massdefendhealthcare.org/

MI Universal Health Care Access Network: http://www.michuhcan.com/

MN Universal Health Care Coalition: http://www.muhcc.org/

MN Citizens Organized Acting Together: http://www.coact.org/

MO for Single Payer Healthcare: http://www.mosp.us/index.html

MS PNHP: http://www.pnhp-mo.org/

NH PNHP: http://www.granitestate-pnhp.org/

NY Metro Chapter of PNHP: http://www.pnhpnyc.org/

NY State Capital District PNHP: http://capitaldistrictpnhp.blogspot.com/

NC Committee to Defend Health Care: http://www.ncdefendhealthcare.org/

OH Single-Payer Action Network: http://www.spanohio.org/

OR Health Care for All: http://www.healthcareforalloregon.org/

PA Philly Area Committee to Defend Health Care: http://www.phillyhealth.org/

RI Everybody In-Nobody Out: http://www.everybodyinnobodyout.org/ri/

TX Health Care for All: http://www.healthcareforalltexas.org/

UT Health Alliance: http://www.utahhealthalliance.org/

VT Health Care for All: http://www.vthca.org/

WA Health Care for All: http://www.healthcareforallwa.org/

WA PNHP: http://www.pnhpwesternwashington.org/

WV Mountain State PNHP: http://mountainstatepnhp.com/

WI Coalition for Health: http://www.wisconsinhealth.org/

WY Voices Foundation: http://www.wyoming-voices.org/

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For Single-Payer Actions in Your State:
http://www.pnhp.org/stateactions/

More State Contacts:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/contacts.html

State-by-State Legislation in Process:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/universalhealth2007.htm

Health Care Facts in Your State:
http://www.statehealthfacts.kff.org/cgi-bin/healthfacts.cgi

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